Scruit

I was playing back some video on my CPCam 507HC and I got the following error message on screen: SYS ERR 01-015 The DVR rebooted itself. When the DVR restarted I checked the system log and saw "01-031" Anyone know what these error codes mean?

Got my answer, but I don't like it: The second part of the code is binary. 01=Chip for ch1-c4 bad 02=Chip for ch1-c4 bad 04=Chip for ch1-c4 bad 08=Chip for ch1-c4 bad Therefore 015 = 01&02&04&08 = "All 4 chips are bad" I don't believe it, because the thing is working. I suspect I overheated the chips my making then play all 16 channels if fast reverse for 10 minutes. Never seen the code before, and haven't seen it since (touch wood!)

I can list the event log, but it does the same thing, newest first. Each page has about 20 events covering a couple of minutes. Can't sort oldest-first.

I'll give it a shot today. I'm changing the circuit do that the relay switches the center wire of the coax instead of the power. Both cameras would be powered up up all the time and the ground (the outer braiding of the coax) for the two inputs and the one output will be connected together. If this works out then I have a few different places I could use this.

I had looked at these and see that they seem to run a couple hundred dollars each. I was hoping for the simpler solution. I'll give it a shot with some old throwaway cameras and a 7" lcd screen I've not used in a while. If I wreck something then... meh...

I would like to broadcast a video image to a portable handheld TV that I have. Are there any devices that will take a composite video/audio in, and broadcast them short-range so a TV can pick it up with it's antenna - no special receiver? I only need to broadcast the signal about ten feet. This idea is that rather than install an LCD screen in the car to display the dashcam output, or install a small screen using a GPS mount, I'd rather have a handheld TV that I can put in my glovebox. if I need to review the dashcam then I take out the tv from the glove box, turn it on to the right frequency and... Basically I need the TV equivalent of an FM modulator.

A 'box camera' is one that has a threaded adapter (C or CS) so you can easily change lenses. You may be able to find a camera with an integrated auto-iris lens, but I suspect you may not be able to cleanly attach an IR Pass filter. The threading is ideal. For TVL, I use a camera that is 460 TVL and record in full D1 mode which is roughly 640x480 in NTSC. A little higher resolution in PAL. Must be black and white because color cameras don't respond to the IR sufficiently. You can use 850nm or 950nm, but make sure you match the emitter to the filter. ie both 850 or both 950. I documented my setup...

I use the FTP feature to have it send me the motion images into a folder on the hard drive of my computer (had to get a small FTP server program) At the end of the day I can view all the images as thumbnails in just a few seconds and quickly identify any of interest.

Britain/Ireland jokes are not funny. To the original poster: You need: 1) Black and white box camera with an auto-iris lens (that does not have an IR CUT coating/filter on it) that will accept a threaded filter Usually like 48mm or 52mm threading 2) An 850nm IR-PASS filter that will thread onto the end of the lens. 3) An IR emitter that is rated for twice the distance you are trying to read plates from. During the day you'll see the plates well. At night the headlight glare will be mostly reduced by the IR PASS filter, and the IR light from your emitter will be reflected well by the number plate. This is my setup and I can read US-style plates (thinner lettering than UK plates) 99% of the time. I only miss plates that would also have been invisible to the naked eye - such as covered up / missing etc. Have your DVR record AT LEAST 7 fps, full frame if at all possible. Have the camera as close to the centerline of the car as possible so the car is driving towards the plate, not past it at an angle. PM me if you want more details. Be warned it's taken me a long time to get this set up right, so I can't promise you won't be tinkering with it every now and then. My setup was $200 for the camera, $150 for the lens, $20 for the filter and $30 for the IR emitter. About 250 quid?

If you get an AVTech or CPCam then you will need the tech support. It's a good DVR for the money, but it has some quirks that can be tough to figure out on your own, whereas a good tech support person can explain it in no time. Example: I just called support because exporting video from channel 9 of my DVR resulted in no audio. Turns out that audio channel 1 is associated with video channel 13, so you have to export video 13 to get audio. Easy enough once you know. Tore my hair out for a couple hours, and tech support got me straightened out in a couple of minutes.

If it's an AVTech or CPCam then you need a converter called the VGA-01. http://www.avtech.com.tw/image/product_pic/sheet/VGA01.pdf I just got one myself and am about to install it!

Found some rain-x in my garage. Will report next time I go driving in the rain.

Let me add that in wet weather the bumper cam lens gets covered in moisture - very quickly becoming useless. The rear windshield of a sedan is kept mostly clear in the rain by air rusing down off the roof - the turbulent low pressure pocket right under the bumper has no such natural protection.

Last time I had this kind of problem (where disconnecting/reconnecting was a temporary fix) it turned out that the coax had been chewed by mice. The wire still had connectivity, but created an effect where the wire acted as a capacitor - once it got 'charged up' the camera signal dropped out. Can you recheck the entire length of the wire for damage? The other things I did to troubleshoot included swapping two channels on the DVR to see if the problem stayed with the DVR channel input or stayed with the camera. I also used a different power supply and even a different camera.

Could have been another camera angle that would have showed the floor, or that the portion of the video they kept only showed a time period when something else (possibly the plaintiff) was blocking the pink liquid from the camera's view. We'd have to see the video to understand why the judge got all bent of out shape. Think of the dashcam in my car. If I get into an accident where the other guy claims I was speeding prior to the accident - then I show up to court with video of only the accident and not enough pre-accident footage to prove or disprove speeding... Then say I deleted the pre-accident footage... Well, then I have prejudiced the other guy's case by actively deleting evidence that the court would need to see to be able to evaluate his version of events. By deleting a portion of the video that is central to on party's claim the judge will have to ask himself if I would really delete video that proved me right, or if I deleted it because it proved me wrong? It's not up to either party to choose what evidence the judge gets to see. All evidence needs to be kept - better to keep too much than too little. In my road rager case I kept video of the entire car journey from leaving my house, through the road rage incident and then all the way to the police stations and then back home. I was mainly trying to prove that my car was undamaged before the indicent by showing my journey from my house to the incident location had been uneventful, and I had footage from my home CCTV showing the car in pristine condition as I left the house. I also didn't want him to claim the incident was a continuation of some made-up prior incident or anything.

No offense intended. Like I said, I'm not an expert. The truck window shot is of cars approaching the house - something only possible with a long driveway and a good choke point. I never park outside. If some of those cameras are PTZ that zoom to present on alarm signals then great - I can't tell that from the image though. You didn't appear to have any cams as close and some of mine. And for each camera that is super-close there's another providing and overall shot of the same area. The one constant in every case that I have deal with using my camera systems is the action always happens almost (of not completely off-camera.) It usually is a failure on my part to adequately predict where the action will happen. I point a camera at where I think the action will be and then someone does something completely unexpected and catches me with the cameras pointing the wrong way. Example: Absolutely: No such thing as too many cameras.

That one is already tried! Thanks! JD What type of cameras are they? Can you post a picture of the camera itself?

This is one of the reasons I never use wireless for something important. I have a couple of tiny wireless cameras (that I sometimes attach to my R/C plane) that clash with the wireless router at my house. If the camera is transmitting while it's inside my house then the wireless network stops working.

I got this effect on weatherproof bullets where the focus was set from the factory. The picture was great at night when it was was dry, but when it was wet the lens would get condensation. After replacing the rubber o-ring (raiding the A/C o-ring set in my workshop!) is was fine in the wet too.

Also looks like a weatherproof camera with a bad seal - moisture condensing inside the glass. When it warms up the condensation evaporates again.

I run my CPCam CPD507HC at D1, 1fps non-motion and max framerate where there's motion (7.5-10fps, depending on which camera it is.) I could run it at realtime/CIF but that would result in lower qualilty images that would make it harder to identify people in shot. The watermark in my CPCam system is in the CD Export utility. But the CD Export utility won't export audio! This is a bug that I hope CPCam are working on! To get the audio out I have to play back the video and record it to my computer's TV capture card. If the video was ever needed for a prosecution for an event that I wasn't at home to personally witness (and therefore cannot testify that the video is a accurate representation of the events that happened) I'd need some way of demonstrating an unbroken chain of custody. In at least one minor case I was involved in that went to an arbitration I only had to testify about the steps I took to get the video onto the DVD and that it was a true copy of the video that was taken from the DVR. If I had to use my CCTV for a high profile court hearing where the defense was intent on suggesting that I could have manipulated the video, then how can I prove the chain of custody? 1) Have a notary sitting next to me as I transpose the video, writing down the steps I took, and have them accompany me to the police station to turn in the video. The notary could testify that the chain of custody was unbroken and that the steps I took were as I had stated. 2) Have a friend videotape the steps I took to transpose the video to a DVD and film me taking the the DVD to the police station. 3) Hire an independent CCTV company to come to the house and download the video to DVD and have them certify the chain of custody The process I take to get a DVD from my home CCTV is twofold: 1) Use the onboard CD burner to export the files in .787 format with player. When this is run in a computer the player will show the video (no audio) and it has a watermark feature that the manufacturer states (in the manual) will cause the video player to turn red when you click the watermark verify button if the watermark is not present. 2) To get the "director's cut" I play the video back from the CCTV into my computer using a TV capture card. This gets me audio and video and allows me to cut from camera to camera as the action moves around. I take the AVI file that was generated byt his and concert it to an MPEG file that my DVD burner will accept. Then I use the DVD burner software to build a menu and add the MPEG file to the disk. Once the DVD is burned (two copies, one for me and one for the police) I take the police copy to the local station and get a receipt for it. The director's cut is easier for the court to use as evidence because they can play it in any computer or DVD player. The built-in CD backup feature requires them to install software on the courthouse computer to run (or I can bring my own computer in, but that could give rise to more challenges). I'm actually leaning towards the option of paying an independent CCTV company to transpose the video for me. They can certify the copy is accurate.

Haven't tried one. Don't think I'd want to install it under my bumper - if I'm gonna get tagged in a parking lot (or back into a snow drift) I'd rather wreck a $75 ebay special than a $400 brand-name camera... What is the best priced WDR that you know of? (Interesting legal Q: If someone hits the back of my car in a pakring lot and damages the bumper and camera, then can I claim for the cost of the camera? What if the camera was like $500 or something? Would that be like claiming for "the picasso in the trunk"

This is how the rear bumper-cam sees a car with it's headlights on that is 5' from my back bumper: